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Best Little Herb Book Brings Herbs and Health to the Table
Organic Farmer, Dietitian, and Author teaches gardeners to reduce sodium intake by using herbs
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Sun City, AZ (Spring 2018) --- Walk into any herb garden after a fresh rain and it doesn’t take long for the spicy, pungent fragrance of the herbs to grab your attention. Imagine being able to walk outside your door, pick your own herbs, return to the kitchen and add those delicious herbs to your dinner.
One of the great advantages of living in the Southwest is that food gardens can produce vegetables and herbs all year long. While some herbs and vegetables thrive in the cool winter months, others grow best during the spring and early summer. By learning how to preserve vegetables and herbs wholesome, organic food is always available.
And if that isn’t reason enough to start your own herb garden, consider how substituting fresh or preserved herbs for salt can improve your health? The typical American diet includes more than 3400 mg of sodium each day. A healthy range is considered to be 1500 to 2300 mg each day. To put that into perspective one teaspoon of salt contains 2300 mg of sodium.
The Best Little Herb Book guides gardeners to begin their first herb garden while learning how to preserve herbs in season. “Gardening has been a part of my life since I was a small child,” DeFalco says. “When I was five years old my father took me to the back yard and showed me a solitary, 6-inch plant he was growing. He told me it was an eggplant. I still remember thinking, I don’s see any eggs on that plant.
I’ve learned a whole lot since then.”
DeFalco has a passion for teaching everyone they can grow their own wholesome, organic food. She divides her gardening life between a small, urban farm with gardens and fruit trees in Arizona, and a rural, summer farm in charming Whitewater, Wisconsin. Growing wheat, canning produce, drying herbs and seed saving is part of everyday life on the farms. “Gardening is easy with my special formula: seeds, dirt, water, sunshine and love.”
DeFalco will be presenting “Herbs for Health and Happiness, at the March meeting of the Garden Club of Sun City on March 6, 2018, at the Sundial Recreation Center, East Auditorium. For more information visit her author website at: www.JosephineDeFalco.com.
AUTHOR'S PHOTO GALLERY
The Best Little Bread Book by The Best Little Organic Farmer, Josephine DeFalco
The Nightbird's Song by Arizona author, Josephine DeFalco
Josephine DeFalco loves to cook healthy bread with her grandchildren
Author Josephine DeFalco is the best little organic farmer
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High-res photos available upon request
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Best Little Bread Book Brings Delicious, Nutritious Comfort to the Kitchen
Organic Farmer, Nutritionist and Author Simplifies Baking Healthy, Homemade Bread
CHANDLER, AZ (Fall, 2016) — Bread, in all of its various forms, has graced the dinner table for thousands of years and should continue to be an important part of a healthy, balanced diet, according to Josephine DeFalco, author of The Best Little Bread Book (Flint Hill Publishing). DeFalco’s credentials may be complex, but she does not believe baking nutritious, organic bread needs to be. The nutritionist, nurse and author also owns a small, organic farm in Arizona and is quickly becoming known as “The Best Little Organic Farmer.”
“Making homemade bread that is free of unhealthy, processed ingredients is easy, healthy and comforting,” says DeFalco. “The thought of bread-making intimidates some people, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. It is also an important part of our diet, and one of humanity’s longest held culinary traditions.”
At just 66 pages, The Best Little Bread Book begins with a simple history of grains, followed by some bread-making basics and simple lessons offering well-founded advice:
When using yeast as a leavening agent, it should be proofed before combining with the other ingredients. Yeast is alive, and like us does not like extreme heat or cold, and weakens with age.
DeFalco may be growing organic wheat now, but she grew up playing with cactus wrens and Red Racer snakes in central Arizona. She left to pursue a BS in nutrition and dietetics from the University of Missouri-Columbia and then returned to earn a BS in nursing from Arizona State University. The mother of three and grandmother of two is also a certified EMT. In 2015, DeFalco published a novel titled The Nightbird’s Song and was in the process of working on a second. However, one day while baking with one of her grandchildren, she decided it was more important to share her nutrition experience and love for healthy bread baking.
“We started growing our own organic wheat, and it inspired me. I am especially excited to share my recipes in the book,” DeFalco said. “Some people shy away from bread because they are concerned about the carbs or the challenges of working with yeast, but my little book makes short work of the process and reminds us why it is healthy.”
DeFalco bakes and writes from her farm alongside her husband, two dogs, and many spoiled laying hens.
The Best Little Bread Book (ISBN: 978-1-5350-1492-2, softbound, $7.99 US; eBook, $3.99 US) is marketed by Story Monsters LLC. Please visit www.JosephineDeFalco.com to learn more.
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